Current weather

Suspect in death of girl caught

Manhunt ends

GAINESVILLE - Hall County law enforcement authorities Thursday arrested a man suspected of killing, kidnapping and molesting a 4-year-old girl last weekend.

ADVERTISEMENT

Print-ready version

Send to a friend

Subscribe to the Banner-Herald

E-mail the Editor

Discuss in Forums

Sheriff Steve Cronic said 24-year-old Cornelio Rivera Zamites was taken into custody at about 1 p.m. following an intense manhunt not far from where the girl's body was found.

Zamites was charged with murder, kidnapping and child molestation in the death of Esmerelda Nava, Cronic said.

A tip that Zamites was in a wooded area led sheriff's deputies and Georgia State Patrol troopers to secure the perimeter. A 21-year-old trooper in training spotted the suspect and he immediately surrendered.

Esmerelda disappeared Saturday at a house where her family was visiting, and her body was found early the next day in the woods behind a house near Talmo.

There had been concerns that Zamites had fled the state, but acting on the tip, search teams closed in Thursday and began combing the area. Patrol cadet Auston Allen, just two weeks from completing his training, saw Zamites leaning against a tree about 200 yards from Zamite's home.

"We were walking down through a field. There was a fence to our left. I looked over there and saw the suspect standing beside a tree," Allen said. "I told him to get on the ground, and he turned around, went down to his knees, put his hands behind his head, and we cuffed him from there."